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Updates from the theme parks

What's open and opening in Orlando and thereabouts:

SeaWorld Orlando opened its new attraction, TurtleTrek, last week. Guests first see two big habitats, one for manatees, the other for sea turtles. Then they enter a 3-D domed theater with a 360-degree film that goes through the 25-year life of a sea turtle named Nyah. Guests, surrounded by the experience, get a turtle's eye view of the ocean.

Photo credit: SeaWorld Orlando

Universal Studios will hold a joint grand opening for two new attractions on Tuesday, May 8. Universal’s Superstar Parade, the park's first daily parade, will feature floats, hundreds of street performers, and characters including the minions from Despicable Me, E.B. from Hop, and Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora & Diego.

Credit: Universal Orlando

Universal’s Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories will be a nightly light and water show, where scenes from classic Universal movies will be projected on waterfall screens and narrated by Morgan Freeman, accompanied by music, pyrotechnics and dancing fountains.

And Legoland, which will open its water park May 26, has begun training lifeguards.

The water park, available only with regular Legoland admission for an extra $12, will have a wave pool, build-a-raft river, water slides, Joker Soaker, and other features. (PHOTO/LEGOLAND Florida, Merlin Entertainments Group, Chip Litherland).